Quantcast

Expert Q&A

Child Life Insurance?

Are there any benefits to Child Life Insurance? Is it even worth is?


Related Topics: Life and Disability Insurance, Other Insurance
Related Tags: Life Insurance, Child Life Insurance, Children
Regina Mares
1 of 1 people found this helpful
Was this answer helpful? YES | NO
By Regina Mares - Premier Financial Alliance
Answered 5 months ago

Equity Index Universal Life policies with living benefits is your best bet. You don’t lose your principal, you can elect to have an increasing death benefit and you can tap on to the death benefit when you become too ill.

Dante T. Thompson
Was this answer helpful? YES | NO
By Dante T. Thompson - The Benefit Center
Answered 3 months ago

In my opinion child life insurance does not do nothing for the child or you. Consider other options such as 529 College Saving Plan for the child. There is wealth of information here, but lets face a child is not going to or expected to die any time soon. In addition, depending on what you would like to see for the child in 10 or 20 years will depend on whether you select a 529 college savings plan or universal life product.

Austin R. Powell
Was this answer helpful? YES | NO
By Austin R. Powell - Insurance Facilities, Inc.
Answered 5 months ago

I’m going to have to disagree with Dennis…I have many clients who buy small ($10-25k) Whole Life policies on their children for two main reasons:

1.) They don’t have extra money to cover burial expenses or time off from work.

2.) The child riders typically cost $5-10 per month to add to a term policy; $10k WL policy on a 7 year old, for example, costs $6 per month and it lasts forever and builds a small cash value, the rider will fall off at some point.

The only time a child rider is a better option is when families have multiple children because you only pay for one child rider for usually up to 10 children.

Thomas Cunningham
Was this answer helpful? YES | NO
By Thomas Cunningham - Self Employed
Answered 5 months ago
When it comes to the loss of a child. Final expenses should be the least of the worries. Think of the impact it would have on the family. According to Teresa Rando’s study 80-90% of parent that experience the loss of a child divorce. So let’s look at it this way: How long would it be till you where able to function at work and would that job be there given that amount of time? Would the family need counseling to help cope with the loss. If the child died from a disease would there be a mountain of medical bills? No amount of money can heal the loss but the proper amount may help pick up the pieces. One of the biggest things that I see is that parent can find healing in contributing to the prevention of the thing that caused the death of their child. Two major problem with child riders is at time of death how does it affect your policy, and if the child develops an uninsurable condition you may be locked into that policy much longer then you would like to be.
Dennis Cherenkov
Was this answer helpful? YES | NO
By Dennis Cherenkov - Primerica Financial Services
Answered 5 months ago

Do not buy a whole life or any other kind of cash value life insurance product on your kids, ever. Or even on yourself, do not buy such a rip-off type of product. Cash value life insurance is a rip-off, no matter how the other agent presents it. You are always better off buying term and investing the difference yourself. And if you want to have coverage on the kids you can add them to your policy as a “rider” called a “child rider”. Having a child rider automatically saves you money such as on policy fees.


Otherwise keep in mind your child probably does not contribute much of an income to the household so all you would need is to cover the burial expenses, and maybe to cover some time-off from work for grieving. You would most likely not need coverage above $10k, maybe $25k.

If you have any more questions let me know.

Tatiana Rios
Was this answer helpful? YES | NO
By Tatiana Rios - New York Life
Answered 6 months ago
I believe it’s a great thing to have particularly if its a permanent policy such as whole life or custom whole life. These policies allow you to have an increasing cash value and by the time the child reaches his or her 20s or 30s you can have a nice amount saved up. But even if you are one of the lucky few who don’t need the savings, the child will have a very low rate locked up for the rest of his/her life which is much cheaper than adult policies.


If you have additional questions, feel free to email tcrios@ft.newyorklife.com

Do you have a different question?